Mel Bay Celebrates 60 Years of Guitar Instruction
Sep 6th, 2007 by Guitar MX Admin
| If you’ve used guitar books, CD’s or DVDs to help improve your guitar playing, then you’ve probably used a Mel Bay Publication. This year marks the 60th year that Mel Bay Publications has been teaching people all over the world how to play guitar. |  |
Mel Bay was a guitar instructor in the 1940’s and put his learning method into writing with the book “Mel Bay’s Orchestral Chord System for Guitar”. He pitched his book to major publishers who turned him down, saying “there’s no future for the guitar”. So Mel self-published his book, and a company was born. Mel toured the country, pitching his method to other guitar instructors. The business really took off after Elvis changed music forever, followed by the Beatles. Soon, everyone wanted to play the guitar. Now Mel Bay is a multi-million dollar corporation, selling instructional books on all kinds of instruments, all throughout the world.
Mel Bay died in 1997, and today the business is run by his son William, and grandson Bryndon. William taught himself how to play the guitar using his fathers books after realizing he would need to learn to play the guitar if he “wanted to remain in the family” (Hah!) Today, he keeps a guitar near his desk, which has been passed around at company Christmas parties. Sounds like a great work environment.
You can read more about Mel Bay Publications 60 year anniversary here. There is also an audio version of this story with photos here. Mel Bay Publications can be found at Sheet Music Plus, or at the Mel Bay web site.
